The past few years I haven't cut my plants back in the fall. Since I live in such extreme temperatures, they say leaving the plant there all winter helps protect the roots from getting too cold - I guess if you cut the stems it almost makes it like a straw - drawing cold air down to the root. But I guess that helps me know where my perennials are once the snow melts. I cut back the dead foliage in the spring. In my two new beds, I tried something new (new to me anyway).
I dug down- put in some good soil and compost. Then, I put about a 1/2 inch layer of newspaper across the whole bed. I covered that with a black weed barrier cloth and then layered some composty looking dark mulch - really just looks like dirt. Where ever I wanted to put a plant, I cut through the cloth and newspaper and then put the plant! I had a weed free garden all last summer. We'll see if the plants come back this year. So far just the peonies have poked up - still early for my area though.queenb, I can't remember what color my peonies are - They didn't bloom last year - I let you know if any of them are red. For some reason I think they are pink and white.

Doxie and I made the annual spring pilgrimage to Lowe's today and did the first phase of our plantings for this year--here are our herbs, the tomato/bell peppers and our new daisy tree.

Doxie read up on this thread and shared with me a lot of tips that you all shared. As we planted, what I heard the most was, "queenb recommends this" or "queenb recommends that". So, qb, your advice came in very helpful for our garden! Cheers!

MidnightSun (Jewelsy's little sis ), that idea about the weed barrier is really good; I'm going to try that. I also wait until the spring to cut back plants; it's another way of knowing what it is. We have extreme temperature here, too. We had snow flurries yesterday.

Veruka, I also make a sketch of my flower beds to help me remember what was there. I'm always trying new things and forget what I put in.

Weeds get trickier all the time trying to be imposter plants--they actually take on the same characteristics. However, we all know that the weeds grow the hardiest, dwarfing the real thing.

We had snow flurries yesterday.
Weeds get trickier all the time trying to be imposter plants--they actually take on the same characteristics. However, we all know that the weeds grow the hardiest, dwarfing the real thing.

Sorry about the snow flurries. I know how depressing that can be when it no longer should be snowing
That is really interesting what you said about the weeds taking on the characteristics of the plants. I didn't know that. Where I live, we get just about 24 hours daylight in the summer so our plants, veggies, WEEDS, have lots of time to grow! Short season but LOTS of daylight. I'm hoping my weed barrier does the trick. We'll see. It was a lot of work but if it really does stop the weeds it will be worth it.

Doxie and I made the annual spring pilgrimage to Lowe's today and did the first phase of our plantings for this year--here are our herbs, the tomato/bell peppers and our new daisy tree.

Doxie read up on this thread and shared with me a lot of tips that you all shared. As we planted, what I heard the most was, "queenb recommends this" or "queenb recommends that". So, qb, your advice came in very helpful for our garden! Cheers!

: I hope everything works out great for you... and let the Great Tomato Race be officially declared ON! (First one with ripe 'maters wins BLTs )

To keep track of where perennials are, I sprinkle colored aquarium gravel around them when they're blooming. I dropped my son off at my ex's yesterday and all my old friends were blooming. At least his new wife is keeping my gardens up, but it made me sad.

I need to figure out what kind of smaller type tree to put in my back yard. I like blooming ones, but not sure if I want to deal with a "fruit tree" or an ormental type tree. I have an odd back yard as I have wires coming into it in a V shape. The wires start at the pole in the back yard and come to the house in two locations so I have to plant in the middle of the V.

Plus I'm trying to figure out what young sundrops look like, I planted those last year and they did look nice but now I'm not sure what they look like as I'm trying to clear out weeds.

nlmcp - my mom has a weeping crabapple that is just spectacular. Other favorites of mine are Uncle (Mr.?) Lauder's Walking stick with a spiraling trunk, smoke bushes that poof into either pink or white "smoke" blossoms (gazillions of tiny flowers that give the illusion of smoke) and a bush that I think may be called a spice bush - it has dark red waxy flowers and the most heavenly scent. If anyone knows a more correct name for it, let me know because I would actually like to get one started at this house. Honeysuckle is also fun.

nlmcp - if you have to deal with a limited area of space due to the wires, a bradford pear tree may be a good option. I think they are absolutely spectacular in the Spring when they bloom, and since they maintain a pear shape in the branches, it may help to manage the size as it grows with the wires.